Previews

The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age

The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age has its own version of overworlds, such as The Plain of Rohan, which you navigate as one character on horseback. This is where the game opens up and allows players to explore and visit towns. There you'll be able to uncover quests, sub-quests and side stories, only about half of which will be mandatory. When above ground or moving through dungeons monster attacks will come in three ways. Random encounters will spring baddies on you. Scripted encounters will occur when you cross certain lines. There will also be roaming enemies which you can chose to attack by simply approaching them.

All of the key traits of contemporary RPGs will be present in this title. Elemental attributes play a role in items and attacks. Equipment, such as armor and weapons, will have varying rarities. Arcane objects from the Second Age will be more powerful, effective and rare than everyday Third Age stuff. Equipping said armor and weapons will change the look of your characters.

The most interesting wrinkle in the RPG blueprint that The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age offers is the ability to play both sides -- Dark and Light. Make no mistake, we're not talking moment-to-moment alignment tweaking as in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This game promises to allow players to play through the game as the bad, guys. That's right. You'll get to pick the Balrog's attacks and get some payback on that bearded fool. Or will you? The Dark Side's storyline won't be as narratively deep or character driven as the primary Light Side narrative. There's even a chance that you won't be allowed to detrimentally effect the course of Tolkien and Jackson's intended storyline. Sorry, Charlie.

Still, EA's efforts to deliver a high-quality RPG to The Lord of the Rings fans seem admirable. Sure, there doesn't seem to be much innovation here. It's sticking to mostly tried and true genre conventions. At least EA's signature production values will remain present in the game. Ian McKellen is being tapped to record new narration to accompany the movie scenes that will make it into the game, in an effort to freshen and recontextualize the scenes to the RPGs perspective.